Microsoft click-baits users with useless 'How to Uninstall Microsoft Edge’ instruction doc

Microsoft Edge
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft’s Bing search engine (via PCWorld) presents a clickbait result when you ask how to uninstall Microsoft Edge. While it shows a video with instructions and features the question, “Why can’t I uninstall Microsoft Edge?” the top article is titled “How to Uninstall Microsoft Edge,” with the URL indicating it’s an official Microsoft page. However, clicking the link directs you to the Microsoft Edge homepage, which highlights everything positive about the browser and doesn’t answer your initial query.

Google Chrome is still the leading browser, with StatCounter reporting a 67.08% market share. Safari is at 17.95%, but it’s only available on Apple devices. Microsoft Edge is in third place, with a distant 5.2% market share despite being bundled with Microsoft Windows.

This is unfortunate, especially as Microsoft Edge is a good alternative to Chrome. Both are Chromium-based browsers, so there’s little difference in performance, and it has a few features that could give Chrome a run for its money. For example, it has a RAM limiter, which stops it from hogging your PC’s memory, while it also has a popup feature that highlights extensions that make it run slower.

Since we live in a free society, you can still download and install Chrome on your PC using Microsoft Edge. But if you do this, you’re bound to encounter several popups encouraging you to stick with the built-in browser on your Windows PC. Microsoft may even ask you why you’re ditching Edge for Chrome. Microsoft also created a page that looks like Google when you search for it on Bing, which could fool non-tech-savvy users who want to use Alphabet’s search engine, although it has since taken this down.

Moves like this suggest that Microsoft is desperate to capture market share from Alphabet, especially as its products—namely Google Search, Google Workspace, and Google Chrome—dominate their specific industries. Microsoft is also trying hard to make users switch to Windows 11, especially with the coming demise of Windows 10 in October 2025. Many are still resistant, though, especially with its TPM 2.0 requirement that disqualifies many PC hardware that is otherwise capable of running the operating system.

Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

  • USAFRet
    Methinks that answer to "ask how to uninstall Microsoft Edge" was written by whatever AI think Microsoft uses.

    No different than all the other AI crapbots. Human sounding, giving little real information.
    Reply
  • ezst036
    While being an ultimately harmless set of text on a screen, it is very much in-character for the low-respect MS regards for its own paying customers.
    Reply
  • derekullo
    ezst036 said:
    While being an ultimately harmless set of text on a screen, it is very much in-character for the low-respect MS regards for its own paying customers.
    We used to be the customer ... now we are the product that likes to complain!
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    I think it's kind of funny that they (probably some intern, or maybe Copilot Plus) went through the trouble of making that site and didn't just say what Google says when you ask how to uninstall Chrome from Android

    Use another browserIf you don't want to use Chrome, you can install and use another web browser.
    Reply
  • Heat_Fan89
    I have a friend who's girlfriend clicked on a wrong link which flashed the typical "you're PC has been infected, click here" which locked her PC. She even went as far as calling their bogus 800 Microsoft number. Yup, she paid them via CC to fix the bogus virus.

    I much prefer the method macOS and Linux uses. It just becomes extremely difficult to mess with a user who first has to enter their password and macOS for the last few versions separates the partitions for the OS and data.

    Windows UAC is still not the answer although elevating UAC to its highest security level helps some. I'm still surprised that Microsoft hasn't gone the password route like the others. But with Windows still using a registry for the OS still makes it susceptible for all kinds of nefarious stuff.
    Reply
  • MisterZ
    Hmm, the article it links to (from 2023) says Chrome's share is 60% and Safari 26%, yet this article says Chrome 67% and Safari 18%. Why the discrepency?

    Also, saying Edge only has a 5.2% share is misleading, because that includes ALL platforms including mobile devices. If we look at only desktops, Edge's share is 13.8%.
    Reply
  • EzzyB
    MisterZ said:
    Hmm, the article it links to (from 2023) says Chrome's share is 60% and Safari 26%, yet this article says Chrome 67% and Safari 18%. Why the discrepency?

    Also, saying Edge only has a 5.2% share is misleading, because that includes ALL platforms including mobile devices. If we look at only desktops, Edge's share is 13.8%.
    That's not really Safari either. Apple products allow you to install another browser, but those aren't really browsers. They only allow front-ends that use WebKit and that shows up as Safari.
    Reply
  • Shiznizzle
    Maybe if MS started respecting user choice they would not have a nobody-is-using-our-browser-issue.

    That will no doubt be a people are leaving our NSA back door PUA/Spyware OS., problem soon.

    Come October this year, i think they are going to be shocked at how many are actually leaving windows. Their own fault.

    The constant nagging that MS does is a PITR to deal with.

    I have all notifications off. All categories. For all apps. Nothing is allowed to remind me of anything. But because i had a "sub-category" of the "main" choice on but "main" box off it took that as permission to serve ads even though the actual check box was grey as well as not allowed due to main controller box being off.

    They are taking the mickey. They really are.

    I was getting ads for Edge and pop ups asking me if i want to make Edge my default choice. Knowing that i had it all off i had to go and check. as to why i was still getting served ads by MS.

    If i wanted edge to be my main browser, i would have done so.

    Edge/Windows is no longer in the business of making an OS a user can use. They are in the business now of serving ads, like google, and hoovering up as much data as they can before restrictions start coming on what they can collect. The law in the US when it comes to data is way behind. They have no GDPR unlike us in the EU who are protected.

    Did the US/EU not mandate that the browser not be integrated into the OS? Here we go again. Round two.
    Reply